A long history in the electronic industry has involved the use and development of analog electronic circuits. These were often correlated with mathematical relationships for representation of the function of various types of analog circuitry.
With the advent of digital logic design, the functional relationships of the prior analog circuitry and their mathematical representations could now be implemented by use of digital logic.
One of the particular functional relationships which are considered desirable have to do with linear relationships.
The presently described system and method illustrates how the mathematical and functional relationships of electronic circuitry can be represented in digital terms by the use of simple, standardized, logic design elements. These systems and methods can be built into simple industry-standard programmable logic elements, for example such as, PALs (Programmable Logic Arrays) or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
By the utilization of these dense-type logic elements involving digital signals, then, instead of an analog circuit design, there can be achieved significant cost reductions, better reliability, wider control, programmable flexibility and greater simplicity.
Digital computers and related logic require "digital" binary values (not an analog voltage or current). If analog circuitry was used, then some form of analog-to-digital conversion was necessary to allow other digital logic to utilize the linear values.
If a linear relationship is created "digitally", then this extra analog-digital conversion circuitry is no longer required.
Also by using single standard FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) devices, the cost is reduced and the functions required can be modified and made flexible by the act of simple re-programming.